Ken wrote; "I've found that it's really very difficult to get a true appraisal from friends-family-acquaintances. They don't want to say negative things about something you've hand crafted, regardless of how they really feel."
Raspberry wine question 387Hi, Michael. There is no problem with this, Bottle your wine, it will improve with age, that is in the bottle. Leave for 12 to 18 months, by which time all will be well. Stephen...
You never met my daughter!
"Blind judging is the way to go for an unbiased appraisal, but even then the number of decent mead judges are limited... I'd far rather receive judging remarks that say that the judge felt that my mead was not well integrated, or which point out a flaw or a perceived deficiency, rather than a judging remark that attempts to guess at some facet of the mead making process or history and which may be just a wild guess with no basis in reality."
My wine club puts on an amateur contest every year. We always have lots of meads, melomels, etc. entered and have a separate category for these honey based drinks. Several members are mead makers and act as judges. We make an effort to give meaningful feedback to those who enter the contest. We have a nice prize for mead best-of-clbutt this year...etched glbuttes. Check out website www.cellarmasters.org.
Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA
